Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for authentication for a multiplicity of services and to a method for universal authentication in an intelligent network for a multiplicity of IN services. Furthermore, the invention also pertains to an apparatus for authentication for a multiplicity of services.
Nowadays many people use a wide variety of services for which access authorization is required. The following are typical examples: telecommunications services such as access to a database, the Internet, mobile telecommunications services, and electronic banking services. Virtually all of these services require access authorization in the form of a password, a PIN (personal identification number) or a person-specific card such as a credit card, an automatic teller machine card, or a mobile telephone card.
Notes of passwords or PINs constitute a security risk. Accordingly, every person is required to remember the access authorizations assigned to him/her and keep safe access cards such as company passes, bank cards, and the like. Small electronic databases in the form of a pocket computer in which the passwords and PINs can be stored are available precisely for the purpose of managing a large number of passwords and PINS. The information stored in such a database is in turn protected by a password or PIN in order to prevent unauthorized access to these security-relevant data. The database owner need then only remember the password or the PIN for access to the information stored in the database. However, when accessing a service, the database owner must first call up the access authorization for the service from his/her database and then type it manually into, for example, an access terminal for the service. This is furthermore very laborious and affords the database owner merely the advantage that he/she does not have to remember as many access authorizations. Moreover, all the access authorizations are present locally in combined form, so that security against fraud or misuse by hackers, for example, is not ensured.